EXCLUSIVE: NBC‘s fall 2026 scripted lineup kicked off with the Sept. 21 series premiere of Line Of Fire, starring Peter Krause and Hope Davis. After a strong launch and week-to-week ratings gains, the drama about a family of federal law enforcement agents entangled in a mystery has become the first new 2026-27 broadcast series to get a back order as NBC has picked up 5 additional scripts.
The premiere episode’s multi-platform viewership has grown to nearly 12M (including encores) so far, improving the Monday 10 PM time period by +48% in Live+3 MP total viewers vs. last fall.
“We’re so excited that the audience seems to be responding as we did, we think it’s such a special show,” NBC and Peacock Scripted Content President Lisa Katz said. “What I love most about it is you have a show that has so many different access points: you have the cases, then you have the family drama and the mystery. It’s a very ambitious idea, and I think that [creator] Josh Safran’s done a wonderful job of balancing it in a way. I think we got so lucky with this incredible cast led by Peter and Hope and sophisticated storytelling that I feel like reminds me of some shows we did in NBC in the past.”
If the extra scripts get converted to an episodic order, that would bring Line of Fire‘s first season to 18 episodes, which would match the season length of a recent NBC drama known for its sophisticated storytelling, This Is Us.
“I think for this show, given the storytelling, 18 feels the sweet spot, and also with what our Monday night schedule looks like and where the opportunities are,” Katz said of the newcomer. “So that would be the goal.”
As a 10 PM drama, Line Of Fire is posting strong DVR numbers and it also is doing well on Peacock. What’s more, Episode 2 grew a whopping 47% among Live+Same Day adults 18-49 on NBC.
“It’s continuing to gain momentum, it’s grown week over week, which I haven’t seen happen in so long, so clearly, people are responding and telling people, and they’re watching,” Katz said.
To further fuel word of mouth, in a synergy move, the Line of Fire pilot episode will be getting a promo run on sibling cable network Bravo on Oct. 14. Episode 4 premieres on NBC tonight.
Don’t Call It A (Broadcast) Comeback
There seems to be something in the water this fall with venerable franchises defying their age as CBS’ NCIS dramas and ABC’s Dancing With the Stars all returned up from their most recent season premieres and NBC’s Chicago Med won the night in total viewers with its season opener last week. Is broadcast television back?
“I hope so, it was never gone for me, but I think that people, with these shows that you get to watch weekly for multiple episodes, and you get to spend time and revisit these characters and their stories week after week, year after year, I think is meaningful, so I’ve believed in broadcast all along,” Katz said. “I’m fortunate enough to be able to do streaming and broadcast, and I think that broadcast shows and that cadence and that rhythm and the ability to air weekly is just something that people value, and I’m glad to see that. Seems like other people agree with me right now.”
In addition to their continuous linear strength, Wolf Entertainment’s Chicago and Law & Order series have been big next-day-on-Peacock draws, with all five series, along with Line Of Fire, firmly in the streamer’s Top 10 since their premieres.
“It’s great that they’re coming back,” Katz said. “And Chicago Fire is going to be 300th episode, SVU 600 episodes, and people aren’t tired of it, they’re eating it up. We’re very fortunate with Dick Wolf and the showrunners and the cast, and the storytelling I think is as strong if not better, so it’s great that people are continuing to watch.”
Any plans to end any of the two long-running shows hitting milestone episodes this season?
“No plans, they’re going strong,” Katz said
NBC’s 2027 Pilot Season & Dick Wolf’s Next Franchise
Dick Wolf came close to expanding his NBC footprint again this season with the pilot What the Dead Know. It didn’t get picked up to series in May but was put in redevelopment, with star Taylor Schilling’s option extended and a new writer, Dr. Death co-creator Ashley Michel Hoban, currently co-executive producer on Fox’s Doc, brought in to pen a new script.
“That pilot’s in contention, and we’ve bought some other development from Wolf Entertainment, continuing to try to find the next franchise. Because, as you know, Dick doesn’t do pilots or series; he does franchises. So we’re trying to find what will be the next one, and What the Dead Know is definitely one of them.”
The new Wolf Entertainment hopefuls are among the crop of projects NBC has in the works as part of the 2026-27 development cycle.
“We’re still doing the (typical) broadcast cycle, so we’ve been hearing pitches the last few months, and we’ve bought a few projects from them that will be on the cycle to hopefully develop, shoot,” Katz said of Wolf’s team. “This pilot season proved very successful in terms of helping us find the right shows, and with Line of Fire‘s performance, I feel very good about it and eager to do it again.”
NBC surprised some when it brought back the January-May pilot season by ordering eight pilots — five dramas, three comedies — earlier this year. The network bet on TV stars as leads of all of them, including David Boreanaz headlining The Rockford Files reboot, which is going into production for a January launch. It’s a strategy NBC plans to continue.
“The goal is to make great shows that break through, and how’s that going to happen? If you don’t have the IP in the case of Line of Fire, but you have a really compelling, well-executed show, then how can we stack the deck? By bringing in Peter and bringing in Hope — both of them are associated with such high caliber projects, I think it gave it a legitimacy, and also bringing in their fans. And then also we have these younger cast members,” Katz said. “Rockford is IP, people know it and are familiar with it, but might not exactly know what it is. And then you have David, a tried and true television star who starred in three long-running successful series, so I feel like it’s about the balance between fresh and familiar, proven stars and new stars, and just being able to find that alchemy.”
NBC’s version of pilot season is set to return in 2027 with similar number of pilots to 2026, Katz said.
“In the early days when I used to do pilots, we were doing 20-25 comedy and drama pilots a year, and that feels maybe excessive,” she said. “I think it’s about doing the right number and the right ones that really feel like you want to be able to see the chemistry of the cast, to see if the concept works. But I would also say we’re open to, if something came that was a bigger idea that we wanted to go, which we did with The Hunting Party where we did script-to-series. That’s also on the table, and it really just depends on what the right model is. But I think for us it’s similar to last year, and then seeing how the new shows perform and what the needs are, and being able to respond accordingly.”
‘Newlyweds’ Shakeup & Multi-Cams’ Older Viewer Skew
Going through a pilot as proof of concept sometimes may not be enough. New multi-camera comedy Newlyweds, headlined by Téa Leoni and Tim Daly, which did a pilot, is undergoing a change at the helm as Gail Lerner, who co-created the series with co-star Jamie Lee Curtis, announced on Friday that she had been fired as showrunner amid production. What happened?
“That truly was an instance of creative differences, and we feel like that concept of a romantic comedy in a multi-cam format was very winning. And that cast is phenomenal with Téa, Tim, and Jamie,” Katz said. “So, we’re working to find the right person and move forward, and we’re still really, really invested and committed to it, and feel like it’s a great companion to Happy’s Place too. Both multi-cam shows, and we love that Tim and Téa are married, and [Happy’s Place co-stars] Rex [Linn] and Reba [McEntire] are a couple; we’ve got some real-life couples.”
Newlyweds, which filmed the eighth episode of its 13-episode order on Friday, was scheduled to go on hiatus this week as search is underway for a new showrunner. Could that be extended if a new person is not found quickly or they need more time to get up to speed?
“We don’t know yet, but because we’re not premiering till later, we feel like we can stay on schedule,” Katz said. Newlyweds and Season 3 of Happy’s Place debut Oct. 23.
With the exception of Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage, which is an extension of an established comedy franchise, all multi-camera comedies that are working these days seem to be centered on characters of a certain age played by stars such as Leoni & Daly, McEntire, Shifting Gears‘ Tim Allen and Leanne‘s Leanne Morgan. NBC is developing a sitcom headlined by Frasier alum David Hyde Pierce for next season. Is the multi-cam genre that gave us Friends and The Big Bang Theory now only working for older people?
“It’s interesting. I think for us we try to center it around a star and a voice, and I think also it’s such a specific form,” Katz said. “Multi-cam is a very different format than a single-cam, and I think some of the people that have experience in it tend to be older. That seems how it’s worked for us when we look at Reba or Tim and Téa or George Lopez [star of NBC’s Lopez vs Lopez], but it’s also people that have a strong point of view and voice or experience to share. So I think that’s been really helpful in terms of how we’re building those.”
NBC
NBC’s Staggered Fall 2026 Rollout & Peacock Collab
For decades, broadcast networks lived and died by Premiere Week in September when all new and returning series debuted, all vying for attention. That tradition is gone, with the networks opting for more strategic rollouts. NBC’s this season is particularly spread out as scheduling has to work around NBA games and the network’s post-season baseball coverage. Only one scripted series, Line of Fire, opened in September; it launched behind the season premiere of The Voice on Sept. 21. There was one other entertainment series, The Traitors: New Blood, a civilian version of the hit Peacock reality hit, that started off in September, with One Chicago and the Law & Order franchise joining last week.
What are the advantages and disadvantages of such a staggared rollout?
“I’m really grateful to our scheduling and marketing teams and the collaboration because it feels like we were able to focus on a few things at once, and by using The Voice, which — I don’t work on The Voice or Traitors: New Blood but I am watching them live or on Peacock next day — I think they’re so great this season,” Katz said. “So by having those, Line of Fire, now we have the Chicagos back, in a few weeks, we’ll have the comedies back. It feels like we’re able to focus on a couple priorities, then launch those and move on to the next. I know everybody used to get so excited about Premiere Week, and it’s all happening. It feels like this strategy has proven, particularly this year, to be working, so I think it’s a good one.”
NBC’s new and returning scripted series are premiering alongside the debuts of Peacock originals — the combined fall rollout kicked off with The Paper Season 2 release on Peacock Sept. 9 and ends with the Dig premiere on the platform Nov. 23, with network and streaming debuts in-between. Scheduling was done holistically across linear and streaming.
“I think that we’ve become over the past few seasons much more aligned in terms of using the NBC next day as another programming move on Peacock,” Katz said. “So, we’re not trying to launch a Peacock original at the same time as we’re launching a new NBC show because we want to be able to platform and highlight each show and give it its due, and also looking at what might be a handoff to something else and which shows can benefit from being scheduled around them, even though they’re on different platforms. I think that that’s also been really successful, how they can be complementary.”
‘The Paper’ Renewal & ‘FNL’ Reboot Status Updates
The first of NBCU’s fall premieres was Season 2 of The Paper. There hasn’t been a lot of information about its performance. Is it possible for it to get a third season?
“Yeah, we have a writers’ room that has been working for Season 3. It only launched a month ago, so it’s still newer, but we thought the second season was great, the audience response and consumer response has been really good, saying as good or better than the first season,” Katz said. “And speaking about our strategy of NBC and Peacock complementing each other, we haven’t had the NBC comedies on yet, so we’re hopeful getting those comedies back on NBC will help the engagement on Peacock and bring more comedy viewers. We are eager to see how The Paper performs once St. Dennis and Reggie come back and when we launch Happy’s Place in Newlyweds.
The Paper is a successor to one beloved NBC series, The Office. Peacock has been developing a reboot of another, Friday Night Lights. Not at the moment, though.
“It’s on pause,” Katz said about the new FNL.
Also on indefinite hold is the live-action Ted series after creator Seth MacFarlane said earlier this year that there are no plans for a third season of the pricey endeavor.
“Right now, we are focusing on the animated version,” Katz said.
Peacock Programming Strategy: White Wine Thrillers, 101 Studios
NBCUniversal’s $27 billion NBA deal and the push for Peacock profitability, achieved for the first time in Q2 2026, has put some constraints on the streamer’s slate, with room for 12 scripted originals a year in addition to Peacock’s sizable unscripted portfolio. The platform went through 13 months without a new scripted series greenlight from May 2025 until June 2026. There have been several pickups since, including The Break-In, Dungeon Crawler Carl, Before I Let Go and The Fast & the Furious series.
“Part of it is, we’ve had some leadership changes, so we spent the past year or so really trying to be incredibly thoughtful and intentional about the kinds of shows and what will work,” Katz said. “And I think when you look at the things that we’ve picked up — and we’ve renewed some shows as well, like Five Star Weekend –– I feel really excited that they feel like we’re really catering to some specific fandoms and things that can help hopefully break through. Whether it be Dungeon Crawler Carl, which has this enormous rabid fan base, or it’s Fast and Furious, where we have the opportunity to tap into that franchise, or Before I Let Go, Kennedy Ryan’s book which she has, again, this really passionate fan base.”
The pending spinoff of Peacock’s parent NBCUniversal from Comcast has not had an impact on its programming strategy so far but the timing of the streamer’s launch has, Katz said.
“Peacock was one of the later to market streamers, and we’re catching up a bit, so I think a way to do it is to find things that people have to tune into, and we love doing things that are original, like All Her Fault, or we like doing things that can tap into a fan base that we can explore,” she said. “So I think that we’ve come up with a great strategy. It took a minute to get there and find the right things but now I think we’re in a really good rhythm.”
Peacock’s All Her Fault helped is part of a wave of female-focused mystery series dubbed white wine thrillers. The streamer has stayed on trend with The Break-In, from the All Her Fault team, as well other female-skewing dramas, including The Five Star Weekend, which had a mystery element, and Before I Let Go.
“I think people really turn up for these shows that have some mystery, suspense thrillers, a relatable theme,” Katz said. “I think when you talk about All Her Fault, and you just say the first sentence of what happens, a mom went to pick up her son and he wasn’t there, and also the husband was like, ‘Why didn’t you check the number?’ I think that resonates with people in a way that is really powerful. Plus, you have incredible writing, direction, casting — all the elements came together. I would say Five Star Weekend is not a thriller and just a story about female friendship and a bit of, again, something that felt emotional, relatable, had food and Nantucket scenery and things that you wanted to spend time there. I know people like to categorize things, so yes, that’s one of the things. But I think we’re open to all different kinds of ways to reach the audience.”
Universal IP-based series such as Fast and the Furious and Ted notwithstanding, Peacock has been buying, developing and greenlighting quite a few female-leaning series. The industry speculation has been that the focus is informed by the arrival of Taylor Sheridan collaborators David Glasser, whose 101 Studios produces all Sheridan series, and Chris McCarthy, as well as the Jan. 1, 2029 move from Skydance to NBCU by Sheridan himself. Sherdan and 101 Studios are known for their lineup of male-skewing hit series such as Yellowstone, which streams on Peacock, Landman, Tulsa King and MobLand.
Indeed, the first Peacock project recently announced from 101 Studios and McCarthy under their NBCU deals is The Chairman, a Matthew Weiner drama starring Eddie Murphy in his scripted series debut. Is Peacock’s development designed to accommodate the output coming from 101 Studios — and soon Sheridan?
“We’re really excited to be working with them and hope they can bring some of the success that they’ve had elsewhere,” Katz said. “And when you have people that are so great at what they do, you’re like, how can we supplement that? Like on NBC, if it’s something that Wolf Entertainment can do, they’re going to do it, and they’re gonna be the best at it. So we look for things that are different than a Wolf show. And I think similarly, knowing the kinds of shows that 101 and Taylor do, I think there’s plenty of other shows, like all the ones I just listed, I think Dungeon Crawler Carl, Before I Let Go, Ted animated, Five Star. Those aren’t the shows that they’re going to be doing. So it’s like taking advantage of what they’re bringing. But there’s so many other audiences that we can serve, and so we’re focusing on that as well.”
‘Dungeon Crawler Carl’: Production Update On TV’s Hottest IP
One of the most anticipated upcoming series on any platform is Peacock’s adaptation of Matt Dinniman‘s hugely popular novel Dungeon Crawler Carl, from showrunners Chris Yost and Eric Heisserer, Seth MacFarlane’s Fuzzy Door and Universal Global Television. Its progress is being closely watched by fans since the series’ June greenlight.
“We are currently in the process of meeting with directors, and then we’ll move on to casting, but the room started about a month ago, and we’re getting material and underway,” Katz said of the series, which is targeting a 2027 production start.
Not long after Universal Studio Group poached Jordan Moblo from Netflix to run Creative Acquisitions and IP Management for the studio, he optioned Dungeon Crawler Carl when it was still self-published.
“Jordan Moblo in IP fell in love with it and got it. And then when we heard it, everybody — when these special things come and they’re so original and so unique, you just jump on,” Katz said. “So we’re so grateful that we got in at the right time, and we’re so excited about that one.
Katz has been able to witness first-hand Dungeon Crawler Carl‘s immense popularity.
“I was taking my son to camp, and he had it in his backpack, I sent it with him, I’m like, you’re not going to be on screens, you should read this book,” she said. “And then we got to the airport, and there were two people in the boarding area that were both reading. Once you are aware of it, It’s everywhere.”
Katz and her team quickly jumped on the sister studio’s TV adaptation to set it up at Peacock. Had they waited, the project may have gone on the open market, with everyone pursuing the now white-hot IP.
“I feel like the goal is always to find the best stories and that one, we all were like, we have to do this,” she said. “So we’re really excited.”